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  Discussion on Bone Spavin and calcium
Author Message
New Member:
Isabe

Posted on Monday, Jul 21, 2003 - 3:22 am:

Dear Mr. O.,

I have a 9-years old mare with bone spavin to her right hock since she was 4.5. The y-ray are very bad but we hope the joint will fuse. Shots have little effect on her but she responds well to Magnetotherapy. We are now giving her calcium in order to favor the fusing process, but I'm wondering if this could cause her problems with her kindneys. Your opinion?

I thank you very much in advance and apoligize for my poor English.

Regards

Isabella from Italy
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Jul 21, 2003 - 6:43 am:

How much calcium are you giving? I do not know of any work to suggest that this will hasten the fusing process, at least not without hurting the rest of the skeletal system.
DrO
Member:
Isabe

Posted on Tuesday, Jul 22, 2003 - 4:19 am:

Dear Mr. O,
Thank youn for your reply. I'm feeding her 4 spoons of calcium carbonate per day. She has a bad osteolitis process going on and after one months her x-ray was much better showing a starting fusing process. I was told this can damage the skeletal system of young horses but not adulte ones. An american vet from Texas, dealing daily with this kind of problems, after seeing the x-ray, suggested to try with calcium carbonate. He usually administer it for six months.

Regards

Isabella
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Jul 22, 2003 - 12:03 pm:

My original statement stands: I know of no research that calcium supplementation, above normal recommended dietary amounts, will hasten arthrodesis.

While it is true that foals are much more sensitive to hypercalcitonism, and it is true that adults are tolerant of large amounts of calcium, and it is true that CaCO3 is not well absorbed from the GI tract, but it is not true that you cannot cause disease in adult horses with too much calcium. See » Care for Horses » Nutrition » Calcium, Phosphorus in the Diet for more on this.
DrO
Member:
Isabe

Posted on Friday, Jul 25, 2003 - 7:43 am:

Dr. Mr. 0,

Thank you very much again for your advise.
I found your website very helpfull and interesting. Just another question. Have you ever heard about a new medicament for bone spavin launched by CEVA (www.ceva.com, called Tildren? It is made with tiluDrOnate, biphosphonate which, according to product description, acts very acurately on bone restructuring, linked to pain in lameness.

Regards

Isabella

Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Jul 26, 2003 - 9:43 am:

I had not heard of this medication until last month when it was reported to be effective in treating the lameness caused by both chronic and acute navicular synDrOme in the horse.

TiluDrOnate, a bis-phosphate, is a inhibitor of bone resorption. It has been used in osteoporosis in humans and has been shown to be effective for some forms and safe. There have been no safety studies in the horse, for more see the scientifc reports section of Equine Diseases » Lameness » Diseases of the Hoof » Navicular Disease / SynDrOme. I am not sure how this might effect arthrodesis.
DrO
Member:
Nathalie

Posted on Monday, Feb 9, 2004 - 6:52 am:

I just found out the product Tildren is not available yet in the US (will take a couple of years they said) but within the next few weeks they will open a website on: www.Tildren.com I think the manufactor is from France if not mistaken.
My vet told me about it on Saturday. Treatment goes through IV and they have very remarkable results so far!
If someone does have more experience with this product I would also be very interesting in finding out more!
Member:
Wendyp

Posted on Monday, Mar 15, 2004 - 3:16 pm:

Hi,
I am in the UK and my horse has just had a treatment of Tildren. It does indeed come from France. Bute is banned in many parts of Europe (not UK) as horses are food animals and it is not allowed in the food chain. This drug is the first treatment for bone spavin in Holland. The dutch vet at my vets practice speaks very highly of it.

It is currently being trialled in the UK for bone spavin. My horse having had 3 cortisone injections and and the joints drilled out was not suitable for the trial. He has one joint fused and the other partly fused. However my vets obtained a special license for him to be given the treatment and obtained information on the treatment from Ceva.

My horse was given the dose intravenously dripped in over 30 minutes. Too fast an infusion can cause colic, diaphragmatic flutter and even cardiac arrest while it is being infused. My vet tells me to expect an improvement in 2-4 weeks and if he improves but is not sound he can have more doses. He has had his bute cut to one bute a day as it is not normally given with bute.

The information given to me is that it is a bisphosphonate which targets and binds to active bone in the same way as MDP is used in bone scanning. Its main activity is to inhibit ostesclasis, this prevents further bone lysis and shifts the balance in favour of oestolasts which can allow some healing. Success in 2/3rds of spavin cases and 80% in very lytic lesions.

My horse had the treatment 10 days ago so we will have to wait and see what happens.

I hope this helps. Isabella I wish you the best of luck with you mare, my boy has been lame for 2 years and I know how awful that is.
Member:
Isabe

Posted on Thursday, Jul 29, 2004 - 9:04 am:

Hi Wendy,

Unfortunately I missed your e-mail and the one of Nathalie. Thank you for the information you gave me. My little girl (11 years old now) has some ups and downs. The joint is partially fused but still causing pain from time to time. Since I had decided to get her pregnant this spring I had put aside the idea to use Tildren. Unfrotunately she got not pregnant this year, so I was actually wondering if it could be worth to try with it. My vet told me that we do not have for the moment many casistics, but I'm more and more reading good news about this medicaments.
How is your horse going on now?
I'm really very interested in knowing if it worked?
Looking forward to your reply I send you my kind regards.

Isabella
New Member:
Ellieg

Posted on Friday, May 5, 2006 - 4:37 pm:

Hi there

Does anyone have any more information on the results from TILDREN. My advanced dressage horse is 2/10ths lame from a bone spavin and this has been recommended
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